The Road Warrior Report - Baylor Review - November 15, 2015

WACO, TX – Red November Phase One is complete. The Sooners started their season-defining three game November run with a scintillating 44-34 victory over #6 Baylor in Waco, and with several other favorable results, it says here that they may already be in control of their own destiny for the College Football Playoff.

Baker Mayfield had a Heisman moment with his fourth quarter scrambling TD pass to Dmitri Flowers for the clinching score. He shredded the Baylor defense to the tune of 24-34 for 270 yards, three TDs, and one pick. He also added a rushing TD and ran for 76 yards on the night. His primary target on the evening was Sterling Shepard, who had an incredible 177 yards on 14 catches and a pair of TDs. Samaje Perine rumbled through the Bear defense for 169 yards on 28 carries, including a 55-yard TD run in the third quarter.

Baylor’s dangerous Corey Coleman, meanwhile, was shut down by the Sooner defense. He had only three catches for 51 yards, 37 of which came on one play. The defensive effort from the Sooners was nothing short of 2001 Orange Bowl level stuff. Yes, the Bears scored 34 points. But we gave them one TD with a stupid penalty, and holding that team to 34 points is like shutting out a normal team. Baylor scores 34 points in a quarter regularly. Mike Stoops has officially atoned for the debacles against the Bears the past two years.

This was a big game. Not a regular big game – a BIG GAME, like we used to play pretty much every year in November. We haven’t had a BIG GAME in November in years. And now we have two more. It’s so nice to see us play in games like this and rise to the challenge.

To Baylor, we say thanks for the great in-stadium wifi and the roof over our head that kept us dry all night during steady rain. We were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves under that roof, and the rain gear went completely unused. It was a good thing, too. It got pretty cold, and if you were soaked, it would have been most uncomfortable.

And so, where do we find ourselves after week 11? We find ourselves in prime position to make the College Football Playoff, that’s where. We are very near a win and you’re in situation, if we’re not there already.

The PAC-12 ate itself last night, which only clears the way for the Sooners. Stanford lost to Oregon, and Utah lost to Arizona. There will be no PAC-12 team in the Playoff. LSU got punked at home by Arkansas. Now we need the Cardinal to do us a solid and beat Notre Dame in Palo Alto in a couple of weeks, but with everything else going on, we’re not sure that’s a requirement.

The only way Saturday could have been better was for Alabama, Ohio State, or Iowa to have lost, but none of those are really necessary. Only one of Ohio State and Iowa can end up undefeated anyway. And we only need to get to fourth. It would be nice for things to fall into place to not only make the Playoff, but to play our semifinal in Dallas. Oh, how long we have waited to play a game like that in a stadium that’s not in the opponent’s home state or, even worse, is their actual home stadium. But Miami would be OK, too. We’re not greedy.

As for where we end up in Tuesday’s rankings? We say no lower than seventh, although it wouldn’t surprise to see us as high as fifth. We expect that we will be ranked higher than little brother, which will trigger all sorts of unnecessary angst in Payne County. But when you can’t take care of business until the end against mighty Iowa State, you’re gonna take a hit.

Next up – TCU. We should have beaten the Frogs in Fort Worth last year, and they are not what they were then. On top of that, Trevone Boykin hurt his ankle and missed most of their game yesterday, when they struggled to beat Kansas in Fort Worth. This is another ABC primetime game, and it will be chilly in Norman. The Sooner crowd will be at “Jump Around” levels of frenzy. The conditions will be ripe for not only a Sooner win, but a beatdown. In the immortal words of Walter White, “nothing stops this train.”